Brilliant thriller! Prepared for a suspense, I got far more than I counted on, in the best way! This is an intricately crafted, terrifying story involving the abduction of a young woman who is then held captive for over a decade. Her eventual escape ends up revealing more questions than answers. Who is she and, is she truly free? Told in alternating timelines and POV, this book kept me up for several, unsettled nights past my bedtime. Absolutely enthralling and entertaining!

This was a page-turner by definition and one that grabbed my attention and kept it throughout. I feel that there are so many thrillers out in the world now that it's hard to differentiate and make one stand out, but this did a great job.

Dear Child is a very dark read, but so engrossing that you keep turning the pages to find out more. This is a psychological thriller involving abduction and captivity until the end.
A woman has been abducted and is being held captive. Who is she? Is she Lena Beck who has been missing for 13 years? Her parents have never given up hope to find her still alive. In this house where she is being held are two children that also live there. One day this woman manages to escape with the girl and ends up in the hospital after being hit by a car. The girl calls her Lena even though that is not her real name. Who is this child? Who is the abductor? Will the police believe her story?
This book is told by three points of view, Lena’s father, Hannah, Lena’s 13-year-old daughter, and Lena (the woman in the hospital). They all have their own secrets they are trying to hide.
This novel is a quick read that I just couldn’t put down. Each chapter had their own twists and turns and had me guessing right to the end regarding who the abductor was.

I love reading books with this theme but this was definitely had so many twist and kept me on my toes.

DEAR CHILD
By Romy Hausman

A shocking, dark, and disturbing page turner of a read I loved. I highly recommend this for any thriller and suspense reader. Lena and her two children are held in captivity in a windowless shack in the woods. The captor, the father is keeping them safe from the outside world.

What a fantastic read with twists that you would never be able to guess. Quite the gripping read that is hard to put down Amazing and highly recommend.

Dear Child is written by a German author and translated to English. It is a suspenseful thriller that keeps you guessing until the bitter end. There's a shack in the woods with a family. The mom doesn't want to be there. You can tell because she's thinking of a way to kill her husband. Flash forward to this woman running away with a small girl trailing behind. Only the woman runs right into the path of an oncoming car. The little girl explains to all that her name is Hannah. The lady with her is her mother, Lena. Lena has been missing for years. Her parents are contacted to come see her only to find that she is not Lena, their daughter. But, Hannah is the spitting image of their daughter Lena. Now, they must unravel everything? Who is the woman in the hospital bed? Where is Lena? Where is the man/husband/father from the shack? How about the other child? What is really going on here?
This book is full of creepy twists and turns. It will have you reading nonstop until you reach the end.

This was entertaining, but I do not wish to read anymore books about mothers & children being held captive. It's been done. No more please.

4.5 stars.

I inadvertently read two abduction books back to back. I am trying to work my way through my TBR pile and happened to read [book:Don't Look for Me|49127515] a couple of days ago and then picked up this one: [book:Dear Child|48893162]. The two definitely had similarities in that women were held captive by men in a remote location and forced to raid children there in isolation.

Of the 2 books, I enjoyed Dear Child more. This book just grabbed me from the start. Lena was kidnapped about 14 years ago when she was 20 and her father has been hoping for closure ever since. He gets a call one night that a woman who says she is Lena has shown up injured at a local hospital in the company of a young girl, Hannah. Lena's father rushes to the hospital but says the woman isn't his Lena. Through the narration of 3 different characters we are lead into the twisted story. We hear from "Lena", Hannah, and Lena's dad in turn. Things don't quite make sense and all of the pieces of the puzzle don't fit but things slowly unwind, often raising more questions than are answered.

OK, I quite enjoyed this book. It was clever and intense. Romy Hausmann stated that she set out to write a smart, modern thriller and she's done just that. I will without a doubt be following her to see what other books she releases. I highly recommend this one!

Despite the comparisons to Room which was a DNF for me, I thought this sounded interesting and i love a good unsolved disappearance. Lena disappeared 14 years ago and has since shown up in the hospital claiming to have escaped captivity from a man who kidnapped her years ago. The big question - is she really Lena - surrounds the plot. The story has alternating timelines and for the most part I was invested in the first 1/3 of the book. I enjoyed the question as to whether she was telling the truth and if she wasn't why and what happened to the real Lena. By the halfway point I started to lose interest and I can't put my finger on why but I never really got it back. Overall, this was ok although I was able to figure out most of it

Thanks so much to Flatiron Books for the e-galley of Dear Child! I normally read literary fiction but have been craving thrillers during a year in which we've all been stuck in our houses. I really enjoyed Dear Child for the propulsive whodunit aspect and must say that I never would have guessed the ending. Romy Hausmann did an expert job disorienting the reader enough that the truth seems quite nebulous for most of the novel, but you're so invested in the outcome that you keep turning pages to see what happens next. As the mother of a child under 2, I found it difficult to read the novel at times because of the emotional abuse the two children suffer while in captivity, yet I appreciated the care she imbued into their characters. Overall, I tore through this novel and would absolutely recommend it to fans of Gone Girl and Girl on the Train.

Hausmann has given us a complex and well written psychological thriller. There are so many twists, yet the story is never hard to follow. This is an impressive debut and I look forward to reading more from the author, though I did feel the ending was a little rushed, especially in comparison to the depth earlier in the book. Still an enjoyable standout thriller.
Many thanks to Flatiron Books and NetGalley for the advance copy.

This book was way darker than I was anticipating. I mean after reading the description I was prepared for a dark tale, and that's what I got and more. Despite the darkness, I devoured these pages.

The characters in this story were intriguing and definitely coming off the page.

I couldn't put this book down once I started it. The whole time reading this story I kept wondering who these people were and how they could live with everything that was happening to them. Would they ever escape this nightmare?

While reading, I kept pondering the meaning of 'normal' and how it pertains to the lives of different people.

Mesmerizingly disturbing, I loved this book and all its shocking turns.

Thank you, NetGalley and Flatiron Books for this arc in return for an honest review.

Holy.MOLY. This book was a wild, wild RIDE! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS ONE TO ANYONE WHO LOVES AN INSANELY MIND-BENDING READ!! My psyche will be haunted by this one for a long, long time. The perfect fall/October read as it will give you all the creepy feels.

I've read a lot of psychological thriller/mysteries in my time and this one was SO unique, chilling and totally f*cked up on so many levels. I was really interested in reading a book that left me terrified and this fit the bill.

I honestly don't know how to fully describe this book and I dont want to give anything away, but TAKE THIS FROM ME ... read the dang thing. And then come talk to me about it - there is so much to unpack from this!!

This book was different from what I was used to. This book was compare to room which really intrigued me to read this book. I expect more from thriller but overall it was good

What a treat this book was! It is a dark, secretive, somewhat baffling story revolving around a horrific abduction. I was drawn to Hannah more than any other character. What a wonder she is! She is intelligent beyond her years, which is nothing short of amazing considering the circumstances she grew up.

This is my first book by this author and I definitely look forward to seeing what is next!

A truly gripping thriller that has you guessing all the way to the end. All of the reviews that say this is Room meets Gone Girl are 100% spot on. There is a lot of jumping around between each character’s viewpoint, but I think that’s what makes the end so surprising!

I was sucked into the first 1/3 of this story but then I somehow lost interest. The concept is fascinating and the characters were very developed but I just struggled to connect.

DEAR CHILD by Romy Hausmann is a unique psychological thriller! I did not expect the twists that came about and the story to take the turns it did. I also loved the multiple narrators! Reading from different perspectives is always a favorite of mine. In DEAR CHILD, this aspect gave this story a lot of depth and meaning.

Dear Child by Romy Hausmann is a psychological thriller, and a really good one! I finished this book in just 6 hours! It grabs you from the beginning and doesn't let go.
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Lena, is walking home very late one night when she is abducted. She is never seen or heard from again, despite many lengthy searches. Mathias and Karin are her parents and they never give up looking for their daughter. One night they are called and told about a young woman who has come by ambulance to the hospital whose name is Lena. But when they arrive at the hospital and see her, they realize that this Lena is not theirs. However, this Lena's 13 year old daughter, Hannah, is the very image of their daughter. From then on this story unfolds quickly and while I won't give any more away, I will say that I never guessed who did it. Not once did I see that coming, and for me that makes this a really good book. At times this book can be hard to follow. Each chapter is spoken from another's point of view and at times there is a lot happening. 4⭐
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Thank you to Netgalley and Flatiron Books for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

From newcomer Romy Hausmann comes DEAR CHILD, a twisty and chilling thriller about what happens after a victim is saved.

When a woman is struck in a hit-and-run accident, she and her daughter are taken to the local hospital. With the mother unable to identify herself, the nurses turn to the girl, Hannah, who is well-spoken and polite, but says things that quickly raise the hospital’s alarm bells --- like that she and her mother live in a cabin in the woods, and her brother is home cleaning up a blood stain on their stairs. Readers instantly will be reminded of books like ROOM and headlines about women and children being held captive for so long that they forget what the real world is like. But this book has only just begun to shock and terrify you.

Thirteen years ago, a 23-year-old woman named Lena Beck disappeared one night after a party. Since then, her parents have done countless interviews, harassed the local police force and kept their daughter’s room ready for her safe return. So when a call comes in from a local hospital one night telling them that a woman who has arrived claiming to be Lena has just escaped from a cabin in the woods, Matthias and Karin are sure that their search is over. But the woman they find in the hospital bears no resemblance to their daughter. Or does she? She is the right age, has the same scar, and Hannah is instantly recognizable as coming from the same family tree as the Becks. So why is her story not adding up?

Alternating between the perspectives of Lena and Hannah, Hausmann unveils a terrifying story of abuse, captivity and the wounds that do not heal just because one has escaped. Lena has killed her captor and run away with her children, but she cannot shake the feeling that something is still out there, tracking her and waiting for her to turn her back. As doctors and police get involved, she slowly starts to share her story --- and it is, of course, every bit as traumatic and sickening as you can imagine. But even when Lena is telling stories of her abuse, the doctors are troubled by her lack of care for her children and the holes in her story. At the same time, it becomes clear that Hannah has not grasped the severity of her situation, even though she is unnaturally bright and well-spoken, leading them to wonder if she knows more than she says about why she and Lena were being held in a cabin.

Rounding out the narrative is the perspective of Matthias, who is obsessed with reuniting his family, including his new granddaughter. Even as Lena’s story falls apart and his wife begs him to reconsider, he cannot help but leak photos of his granddaughter to the media, forcing connectedness on his family members and flying into rages when his beliefs are challenged. This is a twisty and convoluted story, but it unfolds perfectly, with each character revealing another oddity, another brush with darkness and a violent past.

DEAR CHILD is a perfect mash-up of books like ROOM and DON’T LOOK FOR ME, but don’t ignore this one just because you’ve read others like it. Hausmann has an innate talent for writing chills into the most innocent of scenes, and her crafting of the mystery at the heart of the novel is cinematic in its scope. I loved how she focused on the moments directly after Lena’s escape, rather than her time in captivity. So often we forget that victims of crimes will live with their trauma for much longer than the time they were held captive or assaulted, and Hausmann has clearly researched the psychological effects of events like these. Each victim in the story reacts differently, and she handles their journeys to acceptance with grace and compassion, even as she refuses to shy away from the darker, more violent scenes.

This is a truly chilling book, and though it feels ripped from the headlines, I feel confident that few readers will know what to expect from it. You may be good at guessing endings, but this one will absolutely shock you, even if you're convinced you’ve figured it all out.

I’m usually hesitant to read translated works, and though I raced through this book, I thought that several transitions were too abrupt, to the point that they were distracting. I couldn’t put it down, but I still felt a bit disconnected from the plot, almost as if the syntax was too flat. It is obvious that Hausmann is talented, so I am hoping that something was lost in translation, but I can see other readers being turned away from the occasionally disjointed narrative.

Shocking, raw and absolutely horrifying, DEAR CHILD marks the emergence of a bright new talent and a perfect addition to any thriller reader’s library.